Disney Art from Private Collections is an exhibition that speaks from the heart and the mind of the artist. Each work on display is an insight into the creative process.
Nothing in the exhibition is the finished product, yet every piece represents a critical step toward bringing a character to life. An idea in the making. A challenge to be overcome. An opportunity in the midst of being seized.
How do artists work with each other, their directors, and a crew to achieve the full orchestration of an animated film?
When animators pick up a scene from the director, they’re given the story sketch, the layout, the exposure sheet, the sound, and a full description of the action. The Seven Steps of Animation provide the construct for what’s next and ultimately, creative success.
The Seven Steps of Animation
- THINK about the scene in the picture and the potential entertainment of the scene. Ask, what should the character do? How do you show it? Animators advise, “don’t start animating before the idea is worked out. Know exactly what you are going to do before you start.”
- THUMBNAIL your ideas in small sizes before working a larger, more complicated drawing. Test the staging and the cutting and continuity of the camera and story in the scene. Where can you find depth? Should a scene contain long shots or close-ups?
- THE MECHANICS OF THE PRESENTATION should be established next. Are the perspectives of the layout accurate to the size of the character? Is the scale of the characters correct to the things around them? Perspective and scale can impact the dimension, depth, drama, and appeal of a scene or character.
- SOLVE SPECIAL DRAWING PROBLEMS that may be impacting a scene. How do you show a character peeking over the edge of an item? How does a character look when they face-palm?
- DOUBLE CHECK YOUR IDEAS and confirm that they are fully defined and the layout will work as you planned. Characters will need space to move and participate in the sequence, is there enough allowance?
- BLOW UP DRAWINGS TO FULL SIZE and confirm that the thumbnail sketches work and relate to each other. Roughly draw out the key positions utilizing the research drawings and initial sketches.
- PUT THE JUICE IN IT! Now it’s time to work on the individual actions, timing and expressions that make the scene and bring the sketches to live.
As you walk through Disney Art from Private Collections, we invite you to use the Seven Steps of Animation to take you on your journey.
- First, as you look at an individual piece, consider the relationship of the work to the individual artist who created it.
- Second, consider which step(s) of animation that the piece represents.
- Third, take a step back and look at how the captures the character’s personality as well sets the stage for what happens next: the next frame, next scene, and how that one moment influenced the entire storyline of the film.
- Finally, step back further to recognize how this one drawing became the foundation for every animated character in every film that followed it.
Want to learn more? Watch SKETCHBOOK on Disney+
The Magic is Drawn One Line at a Time. An intimate instructional documentary series, SKETCHBOOK is a look into the studios and the lives of Walt Disney Animation Studios artists and animators. Each episode focuses on a single artist, who demonstrates how to draw a single iconic character from a Disney animated film. As the artist teaches the steps to drawing their characters, they also share their unique story about how they made their way to Disney and their chosen character.
